But Apple really ought to contemplate the why of this -- not "Why would anyone want to drive down Apple's stock" or "Why were people so willing to believe an unsubstantiated rumor", but "Why is our stock price so closely tied to perceptions of our CEO's health?" The short answer is that Apple is closely identified with its co-founder, who brought the company back to relevance in the late '90s and has run it as a near personality cult ever since, like no other company of its size. As Don Reisinger cogently puts it, Apple needs to make its succession strategy clear if it wants to avoid these types of panics.